Etymology Onomatopoeia of the natural expression of thought. Compare with er.
1
Expression of thought, confusion, or uncertainty.
Uh, who was that?
2
Expression of discomfort or reservation; a hesitation preceding awkward information or innuendo.
He's receiving some, uh, special attention from the manager.
3
Space filler or pause during conversation.
Uh, let me see...
As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013:
1 more example
And the very highly paid legal defense team for Alec Baldwin, uh basically Manhattan lawyers from uh Emmanuel Quinn, a top 50 worldwide law firm, highly paid.2024 June 24, “Baldwin Judge on FIRE!”, in Law of Self Defense, page 1:
Etymology Onomatopoeia of the natural expression of thought. Compare with er.
1
An occurrence of the interjection "uh".
Although Shakespeare refers to “hums and ha’s,” sifting through etiquette manuals and public-speaking guides turns up scant evidence of a prohibition against ums, ers and uhs, which are profuse in the first recording of Thomas Edison’s voice, in 1888. Mr. Erard, rather ingeniously, traces the prohibition on um and other speech flaws to the advent of radio in the early 1920s.2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013: